Asian Studies in the Era of Open Science

Abstract

With the rapid increase of accessibility to both historical and contemporary resources online, the research methodologies and even the research questions in social science and humanities have been changed drastically over the last decade. Asian Studies is not an exception. Pieces in rare collections in libraries with very limited access such as Buddhism manuscripts are now shared online via new platform for images, IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework), along with the text database. It is now coming to the stage to facilitate open science in Asian Studies. One way of initiating open science is a promotion of open participatory researches by utilizing the open access resources. In addition to these resources, the research outcomes are shifting towards the open access publications. However, only the limited number of open access publication provide open citation in the field of Asian Studies. The promotion of citations is an urgent task in order to assure the traceability of open access resources online and contribute to further development open science in Asian Studies. This panel examines the current practice of open access and open citations in Asian Studies in Japan by presenters consisted of scholars of Buddhism studies, digital humanities, information sciences, and an academic journal editor. Through the examination of cross disciplinary presenters, the panel proposes the possible approaches towards open science in Asian Studies.